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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23464066">The Package</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>BioShock 1 &amp; 2 (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff and Smut, Mail Crimes, More tags to be added, Science, and brigid tenenbaum is a repressed nerd, in which sofia lamb gives no fucks about the law</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2019-09-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2019-09-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 16:02:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,885</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23464066</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After a particularly stressful day, Dr. Sofia Lamb receives a package not addressed to her, but the biology professor, Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum. Bioshock College AU Commission. Smut to come!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sofia Lamb/Brigid Tenenbaum</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Package</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was tiring, being the designated psychiatrist at University of Columbia. Initially, Sofia figured she would be helping guide students to a path they felt the most successful in, but American universities were unfortunately not so kind to students where they had much choice. Education was expensive, and all the students Sofia saw regularly were without supportive families, money, or much of a plan at all.</p><p>On this particular day, Sofia had spent the day consoling a student who attempted to throw herself off of the roof of the tallest building on campus. Too many bad grades and too much debt overwhelmed the poor girl to the point she had assumed taking her life was the best option. After hours of tears, phone calls, and a trip to the hospital, the girl was alive and at least somewhat okay, and Sofia was exhausted.</p><p>She took off her glasses and threw herself onto the sofa which her clients usually sat, gazing at the clock out of the corner of her eye. It was blurry, but she could tell it was at least half-past eleven. She knew it was nighttime, but had no idea that she had been gone so long. She had sent an emergency text to all her clients earlier, but she would have to reschedule all of them…</p><p>She groaned and rubbed her temples. All she wanted right now was a glass of wine, a cigarette, and a nap. She closed her eyes and relaxed on the couch for a second, until…</p><p>There was a frantic knocking at her door.</p><p>Sofia considered ignoring it for a moment; after all, the campus was closed for the night, and curfew had already settled in for the students.</p><p>But what if it was an emergency?</p><p>She couldn’t have a student in need weighing on her conscience, regardless of the hour. With a sigh and a stretch, she stood, slipped her shoes back on, and answered the door.</p><p>It wasn’t a student, but a very confused looking postman, a wiry creature who reeked of cheap alcohol.</p><p>“Are you Dr. Tenenbaum?” he slurred, stumbling slightly.</p><p>“No, I--”</p><p>“Awesome.” He thrust a massive box into her hands, then staggered down the hallway, singing a song about Jesus loving him.</p><p>“I’m not Dr. Tenenbaum!” she called after him. </p><p>He turned a corner, ignoring her.</p><p>With a sigh of defeat, she closed the door to her office and set the box on her desk. The whole instance seemed strange to Sofia; what package would Dr. Tenenbaum need at eleven-thirty at night?</p><p>Sofia rummaged through her desk drawers, searching for a box cutter. Once she found it, she carefully sliced open the box, so as to not raise the suspicion of Tenenbaum that her belongings had been tampered with.</p><p>After digging carefully past the packing peanuts, she found a massive glass jar, which she carefully lifted from the box.</p><p>Then she gasped, almost dropping it on the floor.</p><p>Something was...alive inside, writhing in its fluorescent flesh, as though the light of the office was disturbing...whatever it was. There were other things in the jar, too; some sand at the bottom, a few plants as well, and it was at this point Sofia deduced it was some sort of sea creature.</p><p>But why so late at night?</p><p>There was a knock at the door again, but this one was much softer, almost hesitant. Frantically, Sofia tried to shove it back in the box, only to knock the box over, as well as the paperwork and the lamp beside it.</p><p>The door opened cautiously. “Excuse me, Dr. Lamb, I--”</p><p>Sofia’s heart sank as she tried to hide the evidence of what she had done. Tenenbaum had figured out where her package ended up, naturally.</p><p>Tenenbaum stepped in, then. No matter what time of day Sofia saw her, she always looked exhausted. She didn’t wear makeup, aside from the occasional special events for the university, and her clothes never indicated any sort of caring for physical appearance. Tonight, however, she looked especially tired, her dark circles practically looking like eyeshadow. </p><p>She frowned. “What are you doing with my specimen?”</p><p>“Your...specimen?”</p><p>She huffed. “Yes, my specimen. For my job. I had to express order more sea slugs for--”</p><p>Sofia exhaled. So it wasn’t anything nefarious after all. “I’m sorry, Doctor. I think the stress of today has gotten to me, and I just couldn’t figure out why on earth you’d need something like this at nearly midnight.”</p><p>“You try leading the entire biology and chemistry departments,” she retorted with a grumble, arms outstretched for the jar. “Not only am I expected to grade all my students’ work, teach all of my own classes as well as fill in for the lazier professors, and give lectures, but I also have to take care of the labs and the creatures within them.”</p><p>“Creatures?”</p><p>Tenenbaum waved her off. “I’m not here to vent. You’re lucky I’m nice, or I’d report you for breaking into my mail.”</p><p>There were many words Sofia could place with Tenenbaum, and nice wasn’t one of them. Overworked, perhaps. Anxious. Tired. Blunt. But she didn’t dare say so.</p><p>“Well, I’m sure after you move your...creatures...into their habitat, you deserve a relaxing night. It’ll be good for you, mentally--”</p><p>“I’m not here for a psychology lecture,” Tenenbaum retorted, already turning to walk out. </p><p>“I’m not here to lecture, dear. I just would like to help.”</p><p>Tenenbaum paused. “You would like to help?”</p><p>“You’re a woman of science, too, Doctor. I can relate to that.”</p><p>Tenenbaum snorted. “Psychiatry is a pseudoscience.”</p><p>Sofia considered arguing for a moment, then remembered a time Fontaine angered her over a business discussion in the break room and she lit his hair on fire. He was still bald, even all this time later. Sofia quite liked her hair, and figured Tenenbaum was not a woman to be crossed. “Regardless, there aren’t many women in my field or yours. I think you could use a friend, a drink, a smoke, and a break .”</p><p>Tenenbaum laughed lightly, but there wasn’t any real warmth to it. “One would think a psychiatrist would have better advice for taking a break than simple vices like alcohol and cigarettes.”</p><p>“They’re not vices when used sparingly for special occasions.”</p><p>“I’m hardly a special occasion, Doctor, but I appreciate the sentiment. If you truly want to help, you can follow me.”</p><p>“To your office?”</p><p>“No.” She smiled. “To my lab.”</p><p>--</p><p>Sofia had seen the university’s laboratory classrooms before, but not Tenenbaum’s personal one. She wasn’t sure where she expected Tenenbaum to be spending all her time. Somewhere dark and sinister, perhaps. But once she entered, it was quite ordinary, and extremely clean. Sofia folded her arms to keep from accidentally touching the counters.</p><p>“We’ll put these ones back here,” Tenenbaum said. For such a petite woman, she moved rather quickly, and Sofia wasn’t even sure where she was until she stopped staring at the various sterilization equipment (which was running) to look for the source of her voice. </p><p>She was behind a door, ajar, with an ominous glow beneath it. </p><p>Tenenbaum groaned. “Are you coming to help, or what?”</p><p>Sofia opened the door the rest of the way, effectively smacking it directly into Tenenbaum herself. This earned her loud German curses and a punch in the arm, but once Tenenbaum had finished expressing her displeasure, she stared ahead, and Sofia got to see what caused the glow.</p><p>Fishtanks.</p><p>They curved around the room in an arc, giving the area more of an appearance of a tunnel than a room. The curved tank around them was full of sharks, manta rays, and other large creatures, and there were other, much smaller tanks in the center, full of smaller fish.</p><p>“The marine biology department mostly takes care of this, or so they claim. Really, they’re terribly lazy, and these are my sea children,” Tenenbaum said. “Regardless, I had to have the department’s permission to house my slugs here.”</p><p>“What are the slugs for?”</p><p>Tenenbaum’s eyes sparkled, but she said nothing. </p><p>Sofia decided she found the look on her face a bit unnerving, so she changed the subject. “So where are they going?”</p><p>“They have their own tank over here. I’ve been preparing the water all night so it’s the perfect temperature and salt-to-water ratio. This way.” </p><p>Sofia followed her, discovering that the room indeed was a tunnel, leading into an open room of various massive standalone fishtanks. One was empty, but bubbling, with a blacklight beneath it.</p><p>“Get me a stool.”</p><p>“Where?”</p><p>Tenenbaum groaned, then thrust the jar of slugs into Sofia’s arms. “Fine. You hold this, and I’ll get my stool.”</p><p>“Why don’t I just pour them in? I can reach the top easily, and I’m here to help you.”</p><p>“Because you’ll do it wrong.”</p><p>“Then why do you want me here?”</p><p>Tenenbaum returned with a stepstool and a large net. “I don’t need help with my work or research. I have been doing fine on my own.” She chewed her lip as she climbed the steps, then told Sofia to open the jar. As she used the net to scoop out the sea slugs, she continued. “I need help doing anything aside from work.”</p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>The second slug almost flopped out of the net, but Tenenbaum slipped it in its new habitat quickly enough. “I don’t know how to...socialize. That feels like such a strange thing to say out loud, but...my life revolves around science. It never left room for meeting people, making friends, or…” Her voice was reduced to barely over a whisper. “Or anything more than that.”</p><p>“More than that?” Sofia had a sense of what Tenenbaum meant, but she had learned, very early on in her career of psychiatry, to never voice her hunches or inferences on people. </p><p>Once the last slug was carefully placed in the habitat and the top to the tank closed, Tenenbaum instructed Sofia where to dispose of the jar and where to wash her hands before continuing. “This will...probably come off a bit strong.”</p><p>“I’m sure I’ve heard far worse, Dr. Tenenbaum.”</p><p>“Please just call me Brigid. I work late hours. I don’t get out much. I’ve never had a relationship or really any sort of romantic life to speak of. And, as much as I hate it, you’re right. I do need a break. And when you suggested...unhealthy vices together, I got excited. I want that.”</p><p>“I don’t think that’s an aggressive thing to say. Are you done in here?”</p><p>Brigid looked around for a moment. “Looks like they’ve all been fed, so I’d say yes.”</p><p>“Then we should spend some time together, you and I. But tell me this, Brigid: what are those creatures for? You didn’t answer me before.”</p><p>Brigid sighed. “I didn’t think you’d listen or believe me if I told you. Most people tune me out when I talk about science.”</p><p>“Brigid, darling. It is my profession to listen to people and help them harness their best selves. I would never tune you out.”</p><p>A smile spread on her face, and she suddenly didn’t look so tired. “Then, if you’ll treat me to some wine, I’ll tell you about what I have discovered they can do.”</p>
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